As a new user to the Catalyst Cloud, your initial cloud project will come with a pre-configured
private network and a router connected to the internet. If you have deleted this, or would like to
create additional networks then please see Creating the required network elements for details on how to do that.

Create a rule to allow RDP access. This can be selected from the Rule drop down
menu, leave the defaults for the other fields. Click “Add”.

Warning

Note that by using the CIDR 0.0.0.0/0 as a remote, you are allowing access
from any IP to your compute instance on the port and protocol selected. This
is often desirable when exposing a web server (eg: allow HTTP and HTTPs
access from the Internet), but is insecure when exposing other protocols,
such as RDP, SSH, Telnet and FTP. We strongly recommend you limit the exposure
of your compute instances and services to IP addresses or subnets that are
trusted.

We are now ready to launch your first instance. Select launch instance from the
instances list:

When creating a Windows instance you need to select the
windows-server-2012r2-x86_64 image from the image list first, then select
“Yes” to create a new volume. An alert symbol will appear alongside the Size(GB)
selector. If you hover the mouse on this it will show the minimum size of the
volume required to host the windows image. Set an appropriate volume size,
select “No” to Delete Volume on Terminate then click “Next”.

For a Windows instance the recommended minimum flavor is c1.c2r2. Select
this from the list and click “Next”:

Select the private-net network from the list and click “Next”:

Select the first-instance-sg security group from the list and click “Next”:

No key pair is required for a Windows instance. Click “Next”:

It will take a few seconds for your instance to build. You will see the Status,
Task and Power State change during this process. When complete, the status will
be “Active”. You now have a running instance, but there are a few more steps
required before you can log in.

You will then be prompted by the following screen to create a new administator
password.

Upon completion of this step, it will be possible to connect to this
instance with an RDP application. Connect via the floating public IP that you
associated with your instance in the previous step. This address is visible in
the Instances list and under the Floating IPs tab in Access & Security.